[HIG] DISCUSSION: Section 53: Keyboard Interaction Basics: Add bookmark shortcut

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

Calum Benson wrote:
> > 53. Mini-HIG > `Keyboard Interaction Basics' > `Standard Application
> >     Given that more than 95 % of Web users use browsers where the
> >     shortcut for `Add Bookmark' is Control+D or Command+D, not to
> >     mention the thousands of Web pages which exhort you to bookmark them
> >     by typing Control+D, the choice of Control+B for this function is
> >     ... interesting.
> 
> Don't blame me, blame Eazel  :)  I guess it's a question of whether we
> prefer to upset all the existing Nautilus users, or all the existing
> Mozilla users.

We investigated this when we had the same discussion for Galeon
(http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=57838). It turned out most
popular and modern browsers use Control+B to open the bookmarks editor,
and Control+D to add a bookmark. Nautilus simply has no bookmarks
editor, so that might be the reason why Control+B became "Add bookmark".

If you follow the discussions of that report, you'll see that it's not
really a question of Nautilus versus Mozilla, it's Nautilus and
Konqueror versus Galeon, Mozilla, Netscape and Internet Explorer. In my
opinion, compability with the second group of browsers in this case will
make most users feel at home.


> Of course, any web pages which exhort such things clearly just suck
> eggs, as "Control+D" won't do anything useful on all the best
> platforms/browsers, such as Macintosh and Amiga  :)

Replace the Control key with a modifier key used on the platform, the
letters for the shortcuts will most probably be the same.


> Incidentally, can anyone remember why Ctrl+D *was* originally chosen as
> the shortcut for this... what was so important for Ctrl+B to be doing
> instead on those early browsers?

<B>ookmarks Editor, a thing that most sane web browsers (except
Nautilus) have? ;-)


Christian